Let's cut to the chase ... I made the Recipe #2 ice cream and it is tasty. What surprised me was there are no eggs in that recipe. The result, primarily from the relatively large amount of peanut butter, is nice taste but the end product was too slippery due to high fat content. Also, the complete blending of bananas and peanut butter lost the uniqueness in the flavor of each item. A partial fix for the slippery texture problem is provided in the modified ingredient amounts shown below.
I have yet to try Recipe #1 but I pretty much know it will be a fine banana custard ice cream with small pockets of peanut butter throughout, ergo more banana flavor, but still also some separate peanut butter overtones. I know that because of my own experience making custard based ice creams and ice creams with multiple additions in a good base flavored ice cream, like vanilla or chocolate, plus additions in ice creams like Rocky Road.
Recipe #1:
This recipe is one to be totally enjoyed. You want to make it. Make it now. It uses a custard base and what could be better?
Ingredients: (makes one and one half quarts of ice cream)
2 cups of heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 cup of 4% butterfat milk
2/3 cup of sugar
Dash of kosher salt
3 large very ripe bananas
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of dark rum or maple syrup (optional)
4 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter, divided
Directions:
Heat the cream, milk, sugar and salt in a heavy bottom saucepan, on medium-low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar completely, while raising the temperature to 140 degrees F (use an instant read thermometer). That will take about 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl.
Whisking constantly, slowly pour about one cup of the hot cream mixture into the yolks bowl. Then, gradually whisk that yolk and cream mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the cream mixture.
Return the saucepan to medium-low heat and cook while stirring until the mixture is 175 degrees F. Immediately remove the saucepan from the heat.
Pour the custard base into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
Chill the covered custard base in the refrigerator for four or more hours.
Place half of the custard base into a blender with the bananas. Puree the mixture until it is smooth.
Add the other half of the custard base (if your blender is large enough, otherwise pour blender contents and the other half of the custard base into a large bowl and stir the mixture) and blend the mixture for one minute.
Add the vanilla extract and the (optional) rum (or maple syrup) and continue blending/mixing for one minute.
Freeze the ice cream mixture in the gelato maker in one or two batches based on the capacity of the gelato maker, adding the peanut butter by the teaspoon to a total of twelve teaspoons during the last 5 minutes of freezing.
Store the ice cream in a 1 1/2 quart plastic container, then hard freeze it in the deep freeze for four hours.
Enjoy!
Recipe #2:
This second recipe appears to be more robust in terms of flavor intensity, compared to recipe one, as the amount of peanut butter is proportionately greater. As this is not a custard based ice cream, or even a conventional ice cream, it does not have eggs or egg yolks in the list of ingredients. I figured the bananas and high fat content of the peanut butter would provide the necessary creaminess, and they did, but with too much slipperiness from the fat in the peanut butter.
My initial reaction to the homogenized taste of bananas and peanut butter was good. Then I realized the blending lost the unique flavor of each main ingredient. Still, this is a tasty product, and one where you can limit the amount of peanut butter to reduce the fat caused slipperyness. Think of a pudding with ice cream characteristics due to freezing the mixture.
I modified the recipe to increase the amounts of cream and milk and bananas to reduce the slippery effect of the peanut butter. That will make a product more like ice cream and less like pudding. Those changes are reflected in the ingredients list below.
Ingredients: (makes about 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream)
2 1/2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of whole milk
2/3 cup of peanut butter
1/3 cup of maple syrup (or sugar)
4 ripe bananas, mashed
pinch of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Put the bananas into the electric mixer bowl and mix for one minute on medium speed. Then add the milk and mix for two minutes. Then add the cream, the salt, maple syrup (or sugar) and the vanilla and mix for two minutes.
If needed, use a spatula to scrape down the inside of the mixer bowl after initial mixing to make sure no ingredient sticks to the surface of the bowl.
Add the peanut butter one tablespoon at a time while mixing, and then mix until the contents are completely blended.
Freeze the ice cream in your gelato maker, then put it into a 1 1/2 quart plastic container with a lid and put that into the deep freeze for a two hours.
Enjoy!